The 10 Myths of Renewable Energy

Hi everyone.
As many of you know, I am involved with the Scotian WindFields. I normally try to keep this blog independent of my work with Scotian, but this was too important to leave out. See the following communication about the 10 Myths of Renewable Energy...

The Nova Scotia Department of Energy is currently re-evaluating its Energy Strategy in light of concerns about Climate Change and increasing energy costs. The Department is currently looking for public and stakeholder input on this issue, and has published a discussion paper to help this process. Despite their best intentions, the discussion paper is heavily favoured towards further development of fossil fuel based industry, rather than utilization of our world class renewable energy resources.

The Scotian WindFields are currently developing a formal response to the NS Department of Energy’s discussion paper on Energy Strategy. Scotian is hoping to re-focus the debate over energy from fossil-fuel based ideals to the basic principals of renewable energy. Through its response, Scotian hopes to get the energy debate going in the right direction by dispelling some of the common myths about Renewable Energy. (see below, in order that they appear in the discussion paper). The goal is to help Nova Scotia realize its potential to be environmentally sustainable and truly prosperous, through a future energy strategy focused on promotion of renewable energy.
The 10 Myths of Renewable Energy:
1. “Our economy and energy demand will require fossil fuels for some time” (page ii)
2. The current cost of wind and wave energy is higher than fossil fuels (page 2)
3. “To meet all of our energy demands, we still need fossil fuels” (Page 4)
4. There are technical obstacles to renewable energy (Page 6)
5. That there are “natural limits” to the amount of renewable energy available to use (Page 8)
6. “putting more wind power onto the grid may not lower emission levels” (Page 8)
7. “Energy cannot be efficiently stored” (Page 11)
8. Carbon sequestration may prove cost effective (Page 12)
9. Nova Scotia is “without large-scale local clean energy sources” (Page 13)
10. The opportunities to manufacture competitive renewable energy products in NS is limited (Page 18)

The Department of Energy is currently holding a number of public meetings around the province. If you feel that our government should be doing more to promote renewable energy and address climate change concerns, make sure to attend the meetings in your area:

Nov 29, 2007 Halifax 9:00 am World Trade Convention CentreSuite 101
Nov 29, 2007 Musquodoboit Harbour 4:00 pm Community Center (Rink) 67 Park Road
Dec 3, 2007 Amherst 4:00 pm Wandlyn Inn
Dec 4, 2007 Antigonish 4:00 pm Keating Millennium Centre Conference Room St. Francis Xaxier University
Dec 5, 2007 Truro 4:00 pm Truro Convention Center
Dec 6, 2007 Halifax 4:30 pm World Trade Convention Centre